Joy

Joy. A simple word encompassing a range of emotion. Songs have been sung about it, books written on how to achieve it, and an entire season dedicated to it, but what is it?

My life has been marked, not unlike everyone else's, with times of pain and frustration, but I have also been incredibly blessed in life. I have walked down roads that were filled with laughter and light heartedness. It is most often during those times that I see why I had to walk down the rough road to get to the smooth one. The rough roads are times of refinement and personal growth; the smooth ones times of reflection. I want to remember what I learn during those times of reflection and hold on to the joy I feel when the burden is light, because that is what holds me when life takes a curveball.

As I stare at this picture that was my desktop background for so many months I can't help but wonder if joy isn't so much an emotion as it is a state of being. And I want to be more like that elephant.